Ethereum Use: Great Examples of Smart Contract Application

Ethereum use cases: It is safe to say that Ethereum was the main cause of the 2017 Initial Coin Offering boom. As a second generation cryptocurrency and platform, Ethereum allowed for anybody that knows the Solidity language to use the Ethereum blockchain and create an ERC-20 Token. Ethereum’s technology and simple ways to incorporate smart contracts allowed for many developers to issue their own Initial Coin Offering. Bitcoin is the first generation, revealing to the whole world the power of the Cryptocurrency economy.

But Bitcoin has a concrete use case – peer-to-peer system for payments and transactions. Compared to Ethereum, Bitcoin is kind of limited because Ethereum is more than a Cryptocurrency and a payment system. It is also an environment for developers, fin-tech projects and applications that operate on the Ethereum network. More or less, Vitalik Buterin’s project expanded on the Bitcoin project, adding complex security, transactions and smart contracts. But the environment part is maybe the most important, because it allowed for many different Cryptocurrency projects to operate on the Ethereum blockchain and it allowed projects to raise funds with ICOs.

Real world smart contracts and Ethereum use cases

The Ethereum project is valuable not only because of the Ether coin, but because of the numerous Initial Coin Offerings and Decentralized applications that are made on the network. The price of Ether is and isn’t a reflection on what is happening on the network. It is mainly defined by the supply and demand, but there is no doubt of just how valuable Ethereum is. For more information on Ethereum, check out the bonus articles at the end of this one.

The conversation is far broader and longer, but in this article I will highlight briefly some of the real world Ethereum use cases. First of all, smart contracts can be used in many different scenarios, but anything that can use trustless interactions and smart contracts is a great first step. Governments can no longer launder money, because everything will be on the blockchain and there is no counterfeiting the information. Also voting, registries of private properties, fines, taxes and more. It’s difficult to predict how the technology will evolve in the future, what role will it have with the Internet of Things and how will Artificial Intelligence add to the mix.

Nevertheless, Ethereum smart contracts have great applications at a futuristic world with the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence. Smart Contracts bring to the table transparency, trust, mathematical logic and a bond between two parties that can’t be broken.

Ethereum use cases with the government

Governments can benefit a lot with the Ethereum network and features. Here are few examples of Ethereum use cases:

Digital Registry: Governments can use the Ethereum Blockchain to securely store companies’ information, birth dates, marriage information, social securities, degrees and more, all of that with low risk if handled correctly.

A national Cryptocurrency: A government can issue a national Cryptocurrency that can potentially have a multitude of use cases. A government Cryptocurrency can be used for transparency reasons only inside the government. This way, the public can see and follow where the money goes, thus eliminating corruption attempts. A national Cryptocurrency can have even more features, but it’s too early to talk about National Cryptocurrencies. Venezuela has issued their own national coin, Petro and this will be a great experiment to see how will it pan out in an economy with a record high inflation. Read more on the Petro,

Downed economies: Some countries that don’t have access to proper banking services, an enormous inflation or other problems can use Cryptocurrency payments to hedge their money and store their buying power. In Venezuela’s situation, all that owned currency are doomed. You need billions of Venezuelan Bolivar in order to afford something.

A registry for degrees, education, grades and more: Governments can use Ethereum’s blockchain to store all kinds of information, including grades, various degrees, classes, education and other personal information. This can prevent fraud and help many businesses find qualified workers.

Reassigning ownership: Blockchain technology can effectively remove notaries from the picture. It will be a challenge to figure out how the system will work, but Blockchain Technology has the power to totally eliminate 3rd parties like notaries.

Other Ethereum use cases

Peer-to-Peer financing: Ethereum can be used in crowfunding (i.e. Initial Coin Offerings), it can be used in hedging, insurance registries, derivatives and business deals bound by a smart contract

Corporate benefits: Ethereum can be usefull with Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer Contracts, that can be bound by an Ethereum smart contract and they can’t be changed later. Ethereum can also help with Shareholder agreements and deals, Voting Systems, All kinds of registries, Asset permission and allocation.

All kinds of Decentralized Applications (Dapps): Again all kinds of registries, Store of Personal Assets, Intellectual and smart property, savings accounts, Wills and more. The world of Dapps has great potential ahead.

Digital Identity: Includes everything, from digital passports to health records, driving licence, social benefits, digital authentication and many, many more.

Taxes, voting and policies: Paying Taxes in real time, Tax Identification and records. Also, digital voting for all kinds of reasons is possible, like elections, policy and referendums.

More and more and more: Better funds and asset management for retirement programs, land registry, transfer, management and planning. Ethereum can increase